Pop Star/Fashion Designer

by Rachel Devitt
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September 28, 2012

Sure, it may sound like the kind of hyphenated career only an eight-year-old or maybe Barbie -- or hell, a Kardashian -- would try to claim. But come on, any pop star worth his or her weight in Fendi bags knows that being a fashion icon -- or iconoclast -- is part of the job description. Even gritty rock 'n' rollers are expected to have a certain, identifiable, coated-in-cool look, right? So it only makes sense that some of our favorite pop stars put their money where their meat dress is and started a fashion line. Gratuitous over-branding? Absolutely. Wrong-headed (and usually short-lived) vanity project? All too often. But sometimes, sometimes, the pop star/fashion designer dream becomes reality in the most beautiful, stylish way. It helps if you have some kind of background in the industry: see Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising attendee will.i.am, who may arguably be a more successful pop star/fashion designer than he is actual pop star. It also helps if you yourself are known for your own mad (in all senses of the word) style: see beloved fashionistas Kanye and Gwen Stefani, maverick dressers like M.I.A. or artists who embody a scene or a cause (like Wu-Tang and hip-hop style or Bono and crunchy, green living). But for the most part, if you want to live the hyphenated dream, you gotta have the personality and the look to back up the couture. And what we have here, on this little mixtape of fabulous hyphenates, is a collection of musicians who may have just pulled it off. And if not, well, they still make music that's fun to listen to while you think about all the pretty clothes these jerks get to wear.